Sweden (Not Switzerland) | Hacker News Reader

Sweden (Not Switzerland)

visitsweden.com

52 pointsMasterYoda69 comments

I kinda wish we'd stop try to oversell northern lights with overexposed HDR pictures. They're nowhere near as bright or vibrant as they look in the pictures, even when viewed somewhere properly dark and far north.

Raising expectations too high means visitors come away with disappointment at the faint green-ish sky-snake, which is a shame, as it is pretty spectacular.

I witnessed some pretty mind-bogging northern lights in my childhood.

It's not that they are bright, they just change form so fast that you actually see it, and this is enough to realize how alien they are.

Granted, that was beyond the polar circle.

Yeah, I'm not saying they aren't spectacular, but they don't look anything like the pictures. It's more about the motion and just the vastness of the experience than the vivid colors.

Yeah that kind of picture seems to have increased a lot in popularity the past few years.

They also aren’t nearly as spectacular on any picture as they are in real life so overexposing isn’t really overselling that much.

I definitely saw Auroras every but as spectacular as those pictures but it’s really rare (happened once or twice in my entire life). Selling Auroras to tourists is a really tricky concept to begin with.

In certain areas, yes.

If you visit Iceland at the right time away from city lights, it is indeed better than what the pictures claim.

It’s spectacular and magnificent.

I kinda wish we’d stop try to oversell the Milky Way with overexposed HDR pictures. They’re nowhere near as bright or vibrant as they look in the picture, even when viewed somewhere properly dark…

For those who are not from Sweden (or from Switzerland) this is a real "problem" that happens all the time, that people confuse the countries. And it is something we at least in Sweden take with a big smile :D And according to the comments to the video, those from Switzerland seem to do the same thing :)

Here is an example when Swedish Spotify was listed in the US on the Nasdaq stock exchange and they used the Schweiz flag instead haha. The list goes on :)

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/a47E046_460s.jpg

Huh, I thought the website was some kind of a joke but I guess not. I still have no idea how anyone can confuse the two. Czechia-Chechnya, Austria-Australia I can somewhat understand those but Sweden-Switzerland? Come on.

It's not so much that they sound the same. It's that they are small Germanic, historically neutral countries in Europe. The names are similar enough to misremember details about the two. It's hard to separate the two countries by just remembering stereotypes.

Oh c'mon, Swedes are the tall blond dudes and the Swiss wear funny german clothes and yodle all the time.

Even reading that sentence I started to doubt which was which.

Here's a memory device for you: vikings don't yodel.

After having drunken mead out of bullhorns or skulls, they do!

Sweden certainly isn't historically neutral at all.

It has been neutral from the early 19th century to 2009, according to wikipedia.

> Czechia and Chechenya

I have no idea how that can be a thing. I can understand mixing up Slovakia and Slovenia - their flags are quite similar and endonym in Slovak for that country is Slovensko, Slovenská republika. IMO it's as weird as this Sweden-Switzerland

I think it's about the sound. Something with "che-ia", something with "Swen"...

Like, if you really don't know about the world, or the regions of aforementioned countries, which could very well be, then I see the possibility.

When I revisit the words I kept confusing when I first started learning German, I'm like, did I have mental problems or what!? :)

> I have no idea how that can be a thing.

Yeah even that is a stretch. But at least you can pronounce them incorrectly to sound similar. You cannot do that with Sweden and Switzerland.

> I can understand mixing up Slovakia and Slovenia

Don't forget the historic regions of Slavonia and Slavinia. While neither of those two is an independent country at the moment, you never know what's going to happen in Eastern Europe.

> Czechia and Chechenya

I couldn't find it but last week I read a twitter thread about a software company in Czechia that had gotten some crazy request for documentation because they had been flagged as being in Chechnya

In English I do not get it but the names are very similar in some languages, for example Spanish: Suecia vs Suiza.

But as a Swede I can attest that people do mix up us and the Swiss for real.

Hm, that's a good point.

But as a Swiss I can attest that people to mix up us and the Swedes for real.

Slovenia-Slovakia is the big one that IIRC has their embassies having to exchange mail intended for the other one regularly.

I'm Danish and I have often had people hearing that and then asking me about The Netherlands. The two countries are very similar so maybe that's why but I have this suspicion that it's simply because Dutch and Danish both begin with a D...

And outsiders don't understand the pronunciation of either language.

Yet, I have had English speakers mix them up several times.

> I thought the website was some kind of a joke but I guess not.

It's a real "problem" AND it's a joke. A joke website about a real "problem".

Serbia-Siberia is also a common one.

I know that it went wrong when a follow-up question to "Where are you from" is "Is it really very cold there?"

I thought both were cold places?

Strangest I've experienced of this is one level deeper: someone I was with had the context that I’d moved to Sweden. They asked me how my French was coming along. Took me awhile to make the connection.

I wouldn’t have thought that someone who would know what languages were spoken in Switzerland would be the kind of person to confuse it with Sweden.

The names are particularly close in Spanish and Portuguese. So much so that in Spain I once impressed a blonde-haired blue-eyed Swiss person who told me to guess their nationality by getting it "right" the first time, although I guessed Sweden.

Spanish is neither mine nor her native tongue.

Also seems the Nordic governments have all hired the same PR/marketing firm :D Similar (good) content coming from most of them. This gives me Iceland Metaverse vibes in particular.

Austria and Australia, certainly, but I don't think I've ever heard of Sweden and Switzerland being mistaken for eachother.

It’s more likely in spanish, where it’s Suecia vs. Suiza.

I definitely seen it happen. Hell, people do confuse Czech Republic with Chzechnya..

I overheard a conversation just this morning where a young man was explaining to his friend that he was from Chzechnya, not Czechia. This apparently resolved a lot of questions for the friend.

English: Sweden, Switzerland

In Slavic languages its arguably somewhat close: - Russian: Швеция, Швейцария (translit: Shvetsiya, Shveytsariya). - Ukrainian: Швеція, Швейцарія (Shvetsiya, Shveytsariya) - Polish: Szwecja i Szwajcaria etc.

Romance languages, as well: - French: Suède, Suisse. - Italian: Svezia, Svizzera. - Spanish: Suecia, Suiza. - Catalan: Suècia, Suïssa. etc.

If not the words, then the stereotypes. Sweden! Watches and chocolate, right?

I lived in Sweden for a few months in college and i would say a majority of my friends assumed I was in Switzerland.

As an aside, Sweden’s business record is impressive - IKEA, Volvo, Spotify, H&M - is impressive. I loved my time there.

Not to mention the tech: Klarna, Spotify, Neo4j, Ericsson

They are also a big exporter of malm, for iron production, and they also make fighter jets.

Ore?

Video games.

Correct, “järnmalm” is iron ore.

Not to mention the banks... 4 out out our 5 largest companies (according to Forbes) are banks[1]. But perhaps that's how it is everywhere? :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Swedish_compan...

It’s especially confusing in Slavic languages.

Shvetsiya vs Shveytsariya

Not all, in Croatian it's Švedska and Švicarska.

Weirdly even in Mandarin they still sound similar: Ruidian and Ruishi (with both using the 瑞 character for rui).

Mandarin borrowed both from southern chinese dialects where 瑞 is pronounced ~sui. What's weird about that?

I've never confused the Swiss and the Swedes, but I sure have confused the Dutch and the Danes!

Swiss and Swedes seem quite different culturally, while Danes and Dutch... they're both tiny countries with canals, bicycles and tall people? Former Hansiatic League? The only difference I know is that the Dutch have Amsterdam/drugs/prostitutes.. but that's not exactly a positive distinction

The Dutch had the colonies and naval power and Northern Renaissance.. but that's not exactly modern

Would be curious to hear what stereotypes they have of each other :))

The Danes have the drugs too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

In Portuguese their names are pretty similar as well: Suécia (Sweden) and Suíça (Switzerland).

They're quite similar in Turkish as well: İsveç (Sweden) x İsviçre (Switzerland)

I think both countries are excellent places to visit and I think their flags are big plusses too.

Swaziland changed it’s name to Eswatini partially to avoid the same problem.

Not a country issue but in Canada there are town names that are similar and always getting mixed up.

called Sydney in Cape Breton Nova Scotia but also a town called Sidney with an i in British Columbia. More than once items or people meant for one end up nearly 5,000km in the wrong direction, or worse in Sydney Australia (worse as in it's not in Canada...we love ya Aussies!).

Then here is the Saint John New Brunswick (NB) vs St John's Newfoundland and Labrador vs Saint Johns Quebec issue. In NB it's always Saint not St but NFLD it's always St. in Quebec French doesn't use apostrophe like the English language does for possession.

Even my own town Charlottetown has at least three others in this small region but at least we are a capital and somewhat known being the "Cradle of Confederation" (of Canada). A bit like Philadelphia's fame in US history.

There are 29 Clinton's in the U.S., with 3 of them in New York state alone [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_(disambiguation)

Canada loves confusing names. The CFL also had the Roughriders and the Rough Riders

Do not get me started about my packages getting routed through "ONTARIO CA" -- which is a city in California.

Having had the pleasure of visiting Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway I have to say I definitely underrated them for a long time. I had a great time exploring the cities with their public transportation and since all the capital cities are ports you can take ferries to nearby islands without paying extra. Their museums were also topnotch and the nearby landscapes are absolute beautiful with some world class hiking in the outer regions. My biggest complaints would be the food, yes the best restaurants were good but I was constantly spending $20+ just to sit down and eat some pasta, even kebabs were minimum $15. That said I highly recommend people to visit them in the summer or fall if you get the chance.

Salzburg Airport does not have a help desk for passengers who mistakenly fly to Austria instead of Australia

https://fullfact.org/online/special-desk-Salzburg-Airport-Au...

I think it would be easier to keep these two separate if there was some info about the etymology of the two.

I really need to visit Switzerland ...

As a kid I was more confused between Sweden and Sudan

Switzerland is* equally in conflict with Swasiland.

Update: *was

It has always been

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